Tag: Fertility Preservation
Many young cancer patients prior to treatment undergo fertility preservation applications that utilize cryopreservation techniques such as egg banking, embryo banking and sperm banking. On July 24th – 27th, the 48th Annual Meeting for the Society of Cryobiology will be held at the LaSells Stewart Center…
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Comprehensive cancer care employs an interdisciplinary approach to providing expert diagnosis, treatment, and support to individuals with cancer. A team of radiologists, surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, fertility specialists, social workers, psychiatrists, support groups and other health care professionals work collaboratively to deliver individual treatment plans to…
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The past four decades has seen significant leaps in cancer survival rates…in the United States. However, what are the cancer diagnoses and survival chances for someone born in a developing country? Dr. Mark Agulnik, an assistant professor in Medicine-Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of…
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FAMILY TRAVELS TO RHODE ISLAND FROM OHIO FOR FERTILITY PRESERVATION FOR TWO-YEAR-OLD GIRL Having a child diagnosed with cancer is a parent’s worst nightmare. But juxtaposing the knowledge that your child may survive, and then may never be able to naturally have children of her…
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Often when we think of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the emerging field of oncofertility, we assume that this technology is available to all women of reproductive age following cancer treatment – that with some manipulation of eggs or embryos transferred back into a woman’s…
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Tiffany and her husband, Dave, at a “Pre-Chemo” party the week before she started chemotherapy Around this time last year, Tiffany found a small lump under her arm near her breast. The 28-year old knew that the lump was most-likely a benign cyst so she…
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Newborn Hope, May 2001 In the late 1990s, Lauren and Henry were a young married couple looking forward to starting a family when Lauren was diagnosed with cancer. Lauren and Henry were advised by her doctors to retrieve eggs and bank embryos but the couple…
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In 2006, the American Society of Clinical Oncology published recommendations that oncologists discuss fertility preservation with cancer patients. A recent survey, funded by the Oncofertility Consortium’s pilot grant program, investigated pediatric oncologists’ attitudes about fertility preservation and their patterns referring young people for fertility consultations.…
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Third and final day of our visit with Kirsten the journalist. We really enjoyed her stay and hope she’ll come back soon! —– By Kirsten Tellam Today was a more difficult day at the lab, not because of the work I was doing, but because…
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The October 11, 2010 issue of TIME magazine highlighted the importance of fertility preservation for cancer patients. The article discussed the mission of the Oncofertility Consortium and interviewed a young cancer survivor, Holly, who underwent fertility preservation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL. Since…
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The Nobel Prize committee announced today that the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Dr. Robert Edwards for his role in developing human in vitro fertilization (IVF). In the 1950s, a young Robert Edwards earned his Ph.D. by performing research on…
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In 2010, the American Cancer Society estimates that more than 135,000 people under age 45 will be diagnosed with cancer. Though cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, can destroy fertility, medical treatments can prevent fertility loss for many people. The Oncofertility Consortium is working…
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Picture by Alison Kim, PhD Many people have never heard of the term parthenote, the byproduct of a process called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis occurs when an egg becomes activated and starts dividing without sperm. While parthenogenesis happens frequently in many plants and vertebrate animals, it is…
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Every year, more than 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer. In 2001, 25-year old Tamika Felder was one of those women. Tamika successfully beat the cancer with the help of her doctors and friends but wanted to help other women…
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In preparing for fertility preservation, cancer fighters may worry about the risks of fertility preservation on the health of their future children. Fertility techniques, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), produced more than a million babies over the past 30 years. As such, it is…
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More than two years ago, Kara DeFrias began a blog about her journey to conceive a child. Over two years, this journey was unsuccessful. In the attempt to determine the cause of her infertility, doctors discovered that Kara had uterine cancer in February of 2010,…
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I read an article last week and just can’t stop thinking about it. The article, posted in the New England Journal of Medicine, is a case study of a patient at Massachusetts General Hospital. Briefly, the case study tells the story of a woman who…
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Patients with cancer and those in need in of stem cell treatments often risk losing their fertility in exchange for a clean bill of health. Fertility preservation options give these patients the ability to have children. Additional patients, such as those with autoimmune diseases, can…
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Receiving a cancer diagnosis is traumatizing. Your doctor runs some tests, possibly sends you to a specialist, and then tells you the bad news. Within a few days, you must process this life-changing information, decide on and receive fertility preservation, and start cancer therapy. But…
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The mission of the Oncofertility Consortium is to advance and promote fertility preservation options for cancer patients. However, treatments for diseases besides cancer can also cause infertility. In particular, patients who undergo stem cell transplants can lose reproductive abilities from their treatments. A variety of…
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Over the past decades, advances in fertility, such as in vitro fertilization, also increased reproductive options for female cancer patients. Prior tobeginning chemotherapy and radiation, patients can now freeze down their eggs or embryos to be used after beating the cancer. Unfortunately, these options are…
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In 1990, Mary-Claire King, PhD made a groundbreaking discovery: she identified a gene that was similar in people with inherited forms of breast cancer. She identified this gene by examining families with rare forms of breast cancer, such as those occurring early in life, in…
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A few days ago, I posted a blog on the history and techniques of sperm banking. But what happens to the children born from this method? No studies currently examine the mental health of sperm banked offspring who were raised by their biological fathers. Instead,…
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While much time and energy is spent investigating new techniques in female fertility preservation, the male side of things does not receive much attention. This is primarily because there is one quick and easy way for men to preempt medically induced infertility, that is, sperm…
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